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User blog:Marlene38EE/FROM THE STARS...TO THE ICE
''From The Stars...To The Ice'. '''Marlene Wilkins aka; Marlene38EE **STORY** **ROUGH-COPY** Cast of Characters; ' ''Tahszlyhra-- A young, and exceedingly beautiful Selinian woman. A former technician serving aboard a Sovereignty BattleCarrier prior to being stranded permanently on Earth. Khoryntine-- An older Selinian man, very experienced Military officer and soldier. Served aboard the same BattleCarrier as Tahszlyhra and was instrumental in her escape from the doomed vessel. '''CHAPTER ONE The two of them were all that was left of a ship's crew of thousands. The BattleCarrier Vhalustrahnhya ''had been chased, hunted and finally brought down and destroyed around the orbital track of the gas giant with the great red spot where it's dying carcass had fallen into it, lost forever. The War was not going well, and their people were in a battle for nothing less than survival, but the enemy was clever, numerous, and while the Sovereignty possessed a massive technological advantage it waned in the face of sheer numbers. The Evacuation Alert had sounded, and they'd had the good fortune to be near an escape-launch and had piled in, surrounded by flames and sparks lighting the thickening smoke, smelling of incinerated flesh and metals. Tahszlyhra walked a short ways from the launch even as Khoryntine worked to remove from it everything they could carry and would need. One man, and one woman, she looked up through the cold night air of the world they'd now be calling 'home' to the stars shining bright and impossibly distant now, tears ran freely from her eyes down over her cheeks as she thought about distant worlds and the slaughter happening there with the wind catching her black hair and streaming it like water in a December creek before cold froze it. They'd had the immense good fortune to have found a star system with a natural Life World, which did simplify things immensely for survival... And broke her heart that she couldn't share it with her family, a perfectly natural world and although in an ice-age period, the records had shown such was transitory and the world was lushly-rich in life and beauty. Khoryntine hopped down from the launch's door, laden with carry bags and eyed his companion. For all intents and purposes, the young Technician was the only woman in the new world they'd landed on. She was barely thirty, and he was well into his seventies, but a good ways away from even having lived a tenth of a lifespan. She was a beauty. Tall and lean but lushly curved and fully filled-out. Her forearm spines were clasped tight along the outer edges of her forearms as she held her arms crossed and wandered about a small area. Khoryntine went over to her, offered her a carrybag, which she took on reflex, and glanced up at him, smiled slightly before looking down. To her mind, reeling though she was from the unthinkable enormity of their situation, it could be worse. She could be all alone. The Sovereignty was roughly ten Kilo parsecs from where they were, the result of a blind jump that hadn't worked out as well as had probably been hoped for but could have been far worse. This part of the galaxy was largely unknown except through long-range astronomy and Charting missions done by Deep-Range semi-autonomous drones. A rescue mission wasn't likely for many reasons--including the one that stated there might not be anyone to come and rescue them. She closed off that line of thought, sinking into the 'Now' mind. She wasn't alone, and she had a male, they had weapons beyond those built into their own bodies from birth and they'd had a chance for a decent scan of the world before landing. They weren't injured and the survival gear hadn't been damaged despite the pounding the launch had taken in it's ejection cradle during the fighting so they had a lot to feel good about. It was a ''Laeshtria-class world. Abundant and lush with life, but an ecosystem providing few if any genuine hazards. Tahszlyhra watched her companion as he set down the carrybags and shuffled some items around to balance the weights out better. Khoryntine was someone she knew only casual-acquaintanceship wise from a few meetings at mealtimes due to her efforts to court his attention. He was a long-time member of the Sovereignty Military, and had served in various areas. She gave silent thanks to the Prime Mother that she'd been marooned with a man who had a good amount of experience and instructional training. Khoryntine considered himself incredibly fortunate about ending up with the young Technician. Women were rare in the Military, despite the significant and ongoing efforts to attract more of them into it, including doing everything possible to modify the standard uniform into something that still looked appropriately 'Military' yet also took into account the extreme female dislike for anything clothing-wise that restricted freedom of movement in any manner whatsoever. Women were invaluable in the Military for their superior natural abilities in multi-task coordination and communication combined with an intuitive pragmatism. Most went into Command-Support positions, as most women had no love for direct combat unless left with no recourse...and a cornered female was one of the most dangerous things in the galaxy. Selinian civilization had started from and progressed on the strengths of each gender covering the weaknesses of the other, cooperation between the genders had been absolutely necessary in the face of surviving the incredibly dangerous environment of the homeworld. Females in Command-Support positions always got better efficiency from troops under their command and higher survival rates in combat. Tahszlyhra felt Khoryntine gently guide her by the arm away from the now useless launch, heading towards the lee-side of a large rock outcropping. They'd come down on a tundral plain on the northern area of the planet, relatively near a land-bridge joining two continents that scans had told them was only exposed due to the present ice-age shrouding the world. As they walked, his ears moved ceaselessly as did his eyes, constantly probing the area for hidden dangers of topography or local predators. The clear skies and stars gave more than enough light to see by, and the sensory spines in his ears sifted the area in a manner similar to sonar, covering the area except for the Blind Spot directly behind his head. As he kept his head moving constantly, expertly scanning the area with instinct and skill, this wasn't an issue. He was operating on pure in-the-moment survival instinct, not thinking beyond the immediate concerns of finding someplace safe for them, especially Tahszlyhra, and then he'd concern himself with finding out more about the immediate area. It was cold on the snow swept frozen tundra, but within tolerances even if they were naked. With the nanofabric uniforms they wore and the supplemental clothing in the gear they carried he was confident of being able to survive the very worst of the weather this new world could offer. The wind had teeth, and his nictitating membranes slid across his eyes as his lids narrowed reflexively. It was gusting with strength, but nothing they couldn't ignore. In due time, under the coruscating luminance of the auroral displays in the sky, they found their way to the lee-side of the outcropping, and Khoryntine dug out a Survival coat for Tahszlyhra so she'd find waiting on his setting the shelter up a bit more comfortable, given that female uniforms showed much more skin and correspondingly offered less protection. He wasn't concerned about her safety, if anything females were more resilient to cold and heat extremes than males, but she was young, and this wasn't what a Cadet fresh from Instructional Academy expected regarding end-of-mission. On the Z'Ahlouhra, he could feel her emotional state as she struggled with the situation, trying to adapt to it but hampered by her own youth. The empathic connection shared between every member of their species had done much over the one-hundred-plus millenia of Selinan history to keep things on an even-keel, and where other species had turned their home planets into GraveWorlds, because of the empathic linkage, the Z'Ahlouhra, many conflicts within their own civilization had been limited, or avoided. In reasonably quick order he had the dome-shaped tent deployed and staked it's cover shell securely into the frozen ground, tossed the gearbags inside through the overlapping push-through magnetic-closure door membranes and held out a hand to her by way of inviting her inside. As he took a moment to look at her, he realized truly and fully just what a beauty he'd been travelling with. Dark amber eyes , exquisite bone structure in her face that at that moment seemed to strongly look reminiscent of the ancestral Prime Mother herself. The line of her jaw and nose hearkening to a Selinaehra ''somewhere in her recent ancestry, tall, long-limbed with a perfect figure and a bust line that said much of her future qualifications as a mother. In their situation, instincts were rising, the same ones that had guided them to ascendancy on their own homeworld so long ago. Tahszlyhra easily caught the 'waft' of keen sexual interest on the empathic, met his gaze directly and smiled, taking his hand and squeezing tight as she sought the security and reassurance of the touch of another of her kind. The shelter, the promise of some security and safety at the end of a frightening day was enormously comforting all out of proportion to it's size and actual significance. Inside was warmth, the only other of her kind for thousands of light years, food, and safety from whatever was lurking in this world's night with sharp teeth and sharper appetite. The inside of the reinforced nanofabric tent like shelter was warming rapidly as the interior re-reflected infrared near-perfectly, and despite the incredible resiliency of Selinian physiology the young former Technician was glad for the comfort of it. Khoryntine was busy sorting through the gear, handed her a ration pack. She slit the heavy plastipolymer seal with the tip of a partially-extended thumb talon and settled herself comfortably seated away from the entrance. Female instinctual prudence at it's finest; If something tried grabbing for prey through the door, she had a male between it and her, allowing the male to focus on the threat instead of splitting-focus between her safety and the threat. She wasn't even aware of doing it, as those without that instinct had been eliminated by harshly judgemental natural selection processes millenia ago a third of the way across the galaxy. Khoryntine drew his sidearm, checked it over, opened the revolver-like cylinder and removed the weapon's firing cell. He examined it, then slid in back in and closed the heavy, black-finished gun before setting it aside in clear and easy reach in case of sudden need. He sorted through ration packs, survival clothing and related gear before stripping out his pockets. Tahszlyhra watched with mild interest, taking some comfort in the sureness of his movements and the simple fact that he didn't really seem overly-concerned about things. His calm on the emotional level leant her support, and she drew and set aside her own sidearm as well. "Want me to check it over?" He asked, and she nodded, twitching an ear and smiling as she handed the weapon to him, grip-first. She finished chewing, then spoke. "I don't like to admit this but I really don't have a lot of experience with weapons." She said. Khoryntine expertly checked the weapon over, re-set the firing cell in it's chamber and after closing it handed it back. "You've had the basics, I can tell just from how you handle it. Everything after that is really just learning things you'll eventually figure out yourself on your own." He said, honestly and reassuringly. "Never had many opportunities to shoot a live target, drones on ranges and such..." She admitted, nibbling at the block of highly-compressed carniveg ration. He smiled, picked up his own gun again, held it up as an illustrative example. "Plenty of time and ammunition for target practice, hunting, and self-defense. I tend to agree with the ages-old wisdom of keeping the standard military sidearm an energy-based weapon. Case in point, the situation we're in right now. You remember from Basic Instruction that these recharge their own firing cells?" He asked, getting a nod of reply. The SMSMISA M-98 or Sovereignty Military Standard Military Issue Side Arm Model Ninety-Eight came from a long line of rugged, durable, dependable weapons that had served for millenia, changing only as newer technologies matured. The present incarnation fired a laser-pulse guided, microwave-confinement jacketed particle beam of protons lasting a hundredth of a second. On it's highest of three settings, it could completely penetrate seventy millimetres of face-hardened, rolled homogenous steel armor plate at a range of twenty metres. In the weapon's grip was a sophisticated piece of highly advanced engineering incorporating radioactive, long-lived elements in a quartz-copper crystal matrix that served as a long-lived betavoltaic power source that recharged the weapon's firing cells as needed. While built to serve in-field Military purposes, it had also gained other characteristics over time that aided those and allowed an expanded role. Adjustable target sights and excellent inherent accuracy allowed it to serve extremely well as a hunting weapon in survival situations. Tahszlyhra mainly appreciated the standard-issue sidearm from a technological perspective. She'd always had a knack for technology and a deep appreciation of it, even going back to the earliest stone and bone implements used by their distant ancestors so long ago. It occurred to her then that they'd have to begin developing their skills with those technologies on this new world. Selinianity beginning again. She didn't find the prospect disheartening, in a way she was actually looking forward to making what she'd seen in museums and archives come alive and purposeful again. She was acutely aware of the remnant fear-apprehension of their situation, but the mentality of their people was adaptive, extremely flexible. It had to be to assure survival on a world long ago and far harsher than the one they'd found. Still, there was the Loneliness. The only hedge against it was the presence of Khoryntine, in person and in ''Z'Ahlouhra, along with his distinctive personal masculine scent and the pheromones in it. The reassuring presence of a male was always welcome, especially in a species where the male to female ratio was one male for every eight females on average. Males had always been the Protectors, the guardians. In ages past, the battles they'd fought constantly against predators had allowed the Selinian population to grow and gather strength in numbers while also allowing the women the luxury of time to develop written language, record-keeping, better ways and methods of doing many things and generally forge ahead with the making of civilization and culture. The cooperation between genders had extended fully into hunting also. With a woman or two along, a band of hunters always brought home more game and had an easier time finding it. But, in the end, it was always easier to sleep when you slipped into dreams knowing a male was awake and watching the world. Khoryntine knew better than the young Tahszlyhra what the state of the war had been and glanced at the Emergency Comm, debated using it. The enemy had swarmed out of the darkness of space in such massive numbers the Sovereignty had been forced to fight a delaying-action while evacuating what worlds it could. There'd never been any communication with them despite many attempts, and they were relentless, ruthless. While their weapons were quite primitive compared to the Sovereignty's own level of development, they used what they had very effectively and accurately. Combined with the overwhelming numbers, he privately held out little hope of the Sovereignty's survival as it was. The war had proven to be the final vindication for a prudent approach to guaranteeing the survival of their people, culture and civilization. Long ago, the first of the great Colonizers had departed with an attending fleet of auxiliary ships. Immense vessels, they carried hundreds of thousands of people, and everything that would be needed to find a new world and establish a new Sovereignty far from the parent. Since the first, many more had been sent out. Each and every one having a navigation system that deliberately did not keep track of it's departure course, a course that consisted of a year's worth of semi-randomized maneuvering and travel to completely foil any efforts at backtracking it to point-of-origin. Some had even been sent to some of the nearby and more distant galaxies. With this knowledge, he knew that no matter what, the Selinian people would continue on, but that didn't ease his thoughts of his own home one bit. CHAPTER TWO They ate, slept, talked about whatever came to mind as they got to know each other and forged the basis of a relationship quickly and instinctively. The morning, or what passed for it came. A bare lightening of the sky. To Khoryntine, who'd grown up in the northernmost reaches of a world similar to this one, the subdued dawn was quite normal and something underwhelming to his companion. Tahszlyhra had a somewhat disturbing experience when she'd gone outside to relieve herself, sensing that she was being watched, and keen instincts honed on a dangerous world through generations of vicious natural selection hinted that the watchers were more than mere animal predators. Khoryntine had gone outside with her, allowing distance for privacy, but close enough that he could hear even the stealthiest of attacks, with his back turned but angled just enough to keep an ear solidly on her. He picked up the 'jaggedness' of her emotions, the mild curious-alarm and listened intently but heard nothing indicating a threat directly facing her. He had a good idea what was watching them, although exact numbers were impossible to tell. When the launch had made it's pre-landing orbital survey sweeps, some of the data showed what could only be encampments, of varying sizes, of local sentient lifeforms. Some of the scans had actually given some half-decent imaging of them. On the warmer areas of the planet, where they wore less clothing and looked much less like bipedal fur-bearing animals, they looked surprisingly Selinian. The most immediately-noticeable differences were the total lack of any form of body weapons like forearm spines, and the ears were smaller, and rounded. The fingers and toes were much shorter as well. There was no indications of any kind whatsoever of any kind of metal smelting from ore, although he wouldn't be surprised to learn that naturally-occurring pure metal deposits of the more easily-worked types were being used in some places. It was only natural they'd attract some curiosity from the display put on by the launch as it'd come in for it's landing. Instead of relying on a scanner, he trusted his instincts, his senses, and his intuition... There. In the distance, but not that far away actually, he could easily make out two fur-hooded figures watching them intently from a small hill rise in the land. They were well out of anything approaching the maximum range for a spear, unless they were a lot stronger than he suspected, and given what they'd seen thus far on overflights, he wasn't worried about any kind of ballistic weapons. Still, the flint and obsidian heads of their weapons, and he thought it quite likely they'd be employing such, could cut Selinian skin rather easily where metal blades had a much more difficult time of it. Primitive did not ''mean harmless. He kept an inconspicuous eye on them, behaving as though he were more interested in waiting for game to be sighted and hadn't noticed them. In the Sovereignty's long history of interstellar exploration, they'd encountered more than a few stone-age worlds, and had discovered commonalities of thought that leant directly to survival. One of the main of those was that they were universally untrusting of new people, especially when they were quite physically different from themselves. He was content to leave them be so long as they didn't make a problem of themselves. If they insisted on starting something, he'd finish it. Khoryntine was aware of the shift happening in his mental state, his psychology. His people were survivors above anything else, on the personal level and on the species-level. Right then, he was thinking about the future of his species and if the indigenous sentients of this world had to be exterminated to ensure the continuation of Selinianity, that was how it would go then. He knew very well what the odds were of two sentient species successfully sharing a world, this galaxy was littered with worlds where Nature had tried such experiments and they'd always failed in cataclysmic wars. His main focus was the protection of his mate, and ensuring a territory rich in resources so they could start having children and being able to support a growing population, so she'd have all she needed to draw upon. It'd been proven long ago that a single female and male could safely recreate the entire species without inbreeding rearing it's ugly head. The Prime Mother herself had accomplished it, and as science matured enough to be able to ask the right questions, it'd found some answers, and even more questions. Tahszlyhra came to him as he kept watch, her black hair moving in the soft, dry-chill breeze. She easily sensed his state in ''Z'Ahlouhra ''knowing he was alert but there wasn't any genuine threat and felt the warm undertone of his feelings for her, her importance to him. Once again, her mind brought up the unwelcome thoughts of being alone here on this world and the sensation of enormity and weight came with it. She stayed close, but not too close and intuitively slightly behind him, and followed his sightline until she found what he was looking at. She felt a slight thrill at seeing the primitive clothing, and a flashing hope went through her mind that there could be some kind of co-existence with the aboriginals of this world. She fairly ached for a chance to see and examine the artifacts of their crafting here in day-to-day use, not some museum. The figures moved, slid back and disappeared behind the rise they'd been observing from and she took time to scoop and pack clean, virginal snow into a slit-sided watercarrier she'd brought with her where it would melt later inside their shelter. Transparent polymer and ergonomically-shaped for easy carrying the slit in the side made filling it under a variety of survival conditions quick and easy. It sealed on the nanomolecular level, solid and leak-proof. While she did that, her mind started considering what they'd need in the future, and how to make it from what the new world they found themselves on offered. She smiled as she thought again of using what had been an interest and a hobby for something more now than mere self-occupation as a way of trying to touch the Past. Temporal Physics has been required in school, and she'd done well enough, because while one could study Time and Effect as well as it's Entropic Progression to various degrees, the basic Truth was that Time Travel simply was ''not possible. The Past was the Past, and that was that. Experiments had been tried of course, and had proved one thing beyond a doubt: Temporal Displacement being absolutely impossible. If you tried it, and brought enough energy-mass into the equation, you'd achieve a Transdimensional Displacement. Interesting in it's own right, and it had it's uses, but for ones like herself it still meant the Past was an unreachable country and always would be. As she thought about the future needs, she looked up at Khoryntine, asking a question. "What are your thoughts on hunting?" She asked, packing the last amount of space in the watercarrier with snow, sealing it and standing up as he glanced at her, and she noticed the appraising, appreciative way his eyes ran down the lines of her body as shown by the skin-close fit of her uniform as he answered. "I was thinking of taking a quick scouting trip around the area and see what kind of prey there is to be had. That there are locals in the area give me good reason to believe there's something to hunt here. If not, we'll move onward." He told her, his eyes lingering along her curves. She smiled in response to his gaze, feeling the twinges of early arousal along the sides of her neck, and at her sex along with a pleasantly but subtle 'thrill' that moved up her spine and then came around and focussed in her breasts so her nipples tingled. Khoryntine easily noticed the signs of arousal in the young woman. Her lips reddened deeper, eyes widened a bit as her irises darkened slightly and pupils expanded. Her ears twitched and moved in small, slight, smooth motions in a particulr way as her nipples hardened and became clearly visible through the nanofabric of her clothing. She shifted and re-shifted her stance slightly, hips cocked in a way that spoke coyly of arousal and willing anticipatory submission. In Selinian culture and civilization, the greatest act of Trust and Love was the simplest. A kiss. As a species, they'd been blessed with an inbuilt, and devastatingly lethal projectile weapon. Similar in some ways to what a certain species of snail dwelling in the oceans of their new home world possessed, it allowed a Selinian to fire a toxin-coated dart via a tube running through the middle of their long spear-shaped tongues. The dart itself travelled at speeds fast enough to be very dangerous despite their small size, and the lubricative, toxin-infused mucosal slime jacketing it could quite easily kill an adult in under a minute or even vastly less depending upon where the dart penetrated. Thus the kiss, a simple act of affection, had enormous significance as both parties literally held each other at weapon-point and assured death-at-a-whim, dealt with only the flick of a few motor synapses. Tahszlyhra felt a pleasant, but mild sense of vertigo as Khoryntine kissed her and she invited his tongue into her mouth with quick darting flicks of the tip of her own. His arm partially encircled her in a casual embrace, his main hand remained free, just in case something in the area decided to risk it's life and test the limits of their distraction in each other. He escorted her back to the shelter, saw her safely inside and stayed long enough to gather a few things he felt would be good to have along, then set out. In a short time over a rise in the land, he came upon some loosly-familiar creatures with large racks of bonelike growths projected proudly forward and vertically from the heads with some with smaller sets and others with larger sets of growths, and his skilled eye told him this was a small herd of mixed gender. The sleek creatures were nibbling at lichens and other growths on the Tundral groundscape, and he smoothly went down, noting wind-direction, minimizing his profile and rendering himself as unrecognizable in silhouete as possible. He was operating on the theory that these were animals preyed upon by the locals, and if so, they likely recognized shape, so, he did his best to look like a small boulder from a distance, and gave careful consideration as to game selection and weapon choice as he surveyed the area, nictitating membranes closed against the bitingly chill wind ruffling his short black hair. His pointed, long and half-backswept ears which normally held close to the head moved outward somewhat, each moving much like a cats, but rather bat-like in appearance and lined with short black spines that offered sensory capacities beyond mere hearing. They swept the area around him where his eyes couldn't see without turning his head, sensitive and discrimiating enough to paint a semi-visual 'image' in an area of the Selinian brain that was a blend of auditory and visual functions...a key aspect of their physiology that had often made the difference between life and death on the Homeworld many times well into the modern eras, and the only practical method of defensive-observation of the infamous Ghost Cat. He enjoyed the clean air, the smell of nothing but a Natural and unspoiled world. Even more so, he knew there was a far less dangerous ecosystem on this world than what had shaped his people in the Early Times. The old instincts rose up and spread out through him here, in a world where they fully belonged again. It brought an odd kind of peaceful certainty even as his anticipation for the hunt sharpened keenly. Yes, home was many thousands of Light Years away, and he knew with a certainty he'd never see it again, and aside from the young Tahszlyhra the only other Selinians he'd ever see would be those they had as children, grandchildren and down the ancestry line. It was good, though...they could have easily ended up on a barren rock like the dying reddish world they'd passed on their way to this lush blue and white world. Here, they could live, have lives, family and build what they could of Selinian civilization and culture...a new Sovereignty, well away from the enemy and their insane quest to annihilate or dominate all other sentients in the galaxy. As he considered and enjoyed the Ice Age afternoon, he selected an animale from the herd as they grazed up the slope towards him, and selected his choice of weapon intuitively. The Sss'Zaakell or 'silent weapon' was a heavy black-finished piece of incredibly tough cold-forged steel alloy like a forearm-length, narrow ellipse with needle-sharp ends and deep, smooth fluting inset into the body. He waited, until the range was right, then in a single fluid and smooth motion stood and uncoiled his torso as he cast the projectile with the skill of long experience and practice. The weapon struck a female just as she raised her head at his standing, driving straight through the bottom of her neck at her chest and penetrating deeply into vital organs. She made a startled 'whoof' noise, and dropped dead as the rest of the herd broke and stampeded away. No stranger to hunting, he slung the animal across his shoulders and set out back towards his mate and their small home. Tahszlyhra sensed his approach in Z'Ahlouhra as well as hearing him and sensing his proximity through the thin nanofabric'', so there was no alarm as the door was opened with his passage inside. She'd been busily going through what they had, arranging things, and making as much of a home out of the shelter as was possible for the time being. ''Home. It was very much on her mind. Depression didn't enter the elements of her thoughts or feelings, instinct, intuition and the drive to create a home for them overrode most concerns. Home was here now, that was the essential fact. There was no returning to the stars, ever, and they were forced to assume the worst for their people--meaning they had to keep themselves safe, hold onto what they held in their memories, and pass that along into writings and the education of their offspring. However, ending up stranded did have one genuine benefit; She had a male all to herself. Normally, with a female to male ratio of an average of eight-to-one the typical arrangement was one male and a harem of seven to nine wives. Such arrangements were logical, normal, and had made a significant difference in keeping their species alive during The Early Times when every ear and eye had to watch for predators every second. Being fortunate enough to have a relationship where it was one-to-one was very rare, and she appreciated it. Sitting crosslegged, she smiled at his return, recieving one in return and a rush of 'warmth' in Z'Ahlouhra, and she knew he got the same from her in kind. "Come outside, you have to see this prey. In itself, it's nothing special, but it's coat ''is like nothing I've ever felt on an animal in the wilds." He said casually, piquing her interest and offering a hand for her assistance in standing--hardly necessary, but a courtesy she appreciated for it's own sake. Outside, she knelt and examined the dead animal curiously, running her hands through the fur and amazed at the depth of it, the softness while feeling what remained of the animal's body warmth when she reached skin. The animal's scent told her that not only was it edible, but it would most likely be very appealing as well, and her stomach ached slightly in hunger. "Can you show me how to skin it?" She asked Khoryntine, examining the animal's horns now, assessing them and her mind working out the uses they could be put to. "Certainly, but first..." He said, and slit the animal's belly open from throat to pelvis in a quick, sure-handed series of deft movements with his knife. Like any Selinian, she was quite aware of hunting and all that went with it. Also, like any of her kind, the realities of life weren't cause to be disconcerted, especially not having survived the Adulthood Rite at age fourteen. She leaned in, sniffing the air around the opening, enjoying the smell of warm blood, and her nose registering the desirability of the animal's flesh as Khoryntine cut the heart out with a few quick motions of blade and talons, removing it and the weapon that had had stilled it a short time earlier. He studied the organ, then cut it in a very specific way, sharing it equally with her, as much of the blood was retained in it's chambers as he'd cut along the structural areas to avoid rupturing them. Tahszlyhra watched him, unsure how to deal with her share. As she watched, he used the severed ends of blood vessels to drink from, firmly squeeing the chambers, then followed suit. The warm blood washed across her tongue, and it felt as if life had sunk into her from it, it was more than taste but a bodywide physical reaction of pleasure. She drank hungrily, then sucked it as dry as she could not wanting to waste a drop, then began using her talons, as Khoryntine did, to cut portions appropriately bite-sized. Heart, liver, kidneys, and the Caribou's intestinal tract which was filled with a pudding-like mix of digestive juice-laden lichen and mosses with a tangy flavour that they devoured hungrily, with Khoryntine showing her all the little useful tricks to handling the eating of such delicacies, such as the eyes and how to properly remove them without damage. The bloodmeats consumed and hunger sated, Khoryntine showed her the way of dressing an animal, his skill evident from experience. He explained what he did and why as he went, doing his best to impart the subtleties as well as the general knowledge. He had her do some areas, patiently watching, and coaching her along as she followed his instructions, her newness to the task evident in the overly-deliberate care of each movement of knife and talons as they worked to remove the skin in one whole piece rolling the animal's carcass as they worked around. "Nicely done. You have a good feel for this." He complimented her after they'd finished and he was preparing the properly butcher the carcass into easy to store sections as well as collecting the precious fat. Tahszlyhra enjoyed the experience, being able to scratch the long-standing mental itch of doing what she'd studied and pondered. She stood, looking around the world as she licked her hands clean with her long, rasp-equipped, spear-shaped tongue. "This is a good world. I miss home, but this will be home itself soon." She said, watching distant birds flying. "Yes, it is, and it will make a good home for us." Khoryntine agreed, standing himself, and nuzzling the back of her neck through her dark hair, hearing her chuckle in amorous amusement. She turned, wrapping arms affectionately around his neck, feeling his arms come around her. Her eyes were almost blazing as she considered the future, and in Z'Ahlouhra'' he caught fleeting glimpses of the images in her mind--a rare thing that only occured when emotions were at a great height, the power of them coming through clear as ice water from a virgin mountain glacier. She was thinking of generations to come, children, people of their own kind and born from them. A recreation of The Beginning, Kiloparsecs distant from the world Lyllith had awakened on alone. This was the core of the female drive, he knew it and had seen it before in women he'd been with before and looking out across a newly-made world from the decades-longs efforts of Seliniforming a lifeless rock into something better. She twisted her head on her neck, looking directly behind her, her eyes sweeping across the terrain, then back to him. "Khoryntine, think ''of it! Millenia from now, we'll be remembered in the same breath as Lyllith herself. No matter what happens back home, our people won't just disappear into the haze of of the past...we'll be alive, building, getting stronger and better with every generation just as our people did in The Early Times, and eventually we'll go back to the stars but smarter." She said excitedly, and he could feel her heart pounding in her chest as she was pressed against him. He moved a lock of dark hair from her smiling, radiantly-excited face. "In time, yes we will. The indigenous sentients though, do present a problem. Rest assured they will create some problems for us, you know what early naturally-evolving cultures can be like." He said, not wanting to dampen her spirit, but mentioning a word of caution. "A good point, yes. It would be nice if sometime in the future we can co-exist without too many problems. We'll have to see how it unfolds, we don't know anything about them really so there's all the reasons to think of the best as well as the worst happenings. I just hope the Schism doesn't happen again, not here." Khoryntine considered that point. "It's in our nature, Tahszlyhra. Always has been since The Early Times." He said. "I know, it's a pointless wishing, but not having to contend with Tahkhysians would make for a quieter world." "True, but in all our history, they've been more benefit than problem, especially in the wars outside our own kind. So, it's likely wisest if we plan for their emergence and deal with things as our people always have." Khoryntine counselled her. She looked up into his eyes, smiled, then looked back to the carcass awaiting it's finishing butchery. "Let's just deal with simple things for now and ignore the great concerns until a little later?" She said. '''CHAPTER THREE' The next few days saw them settle more comfortably into a their new lives as Khoryntine taught Tahszlyhra what she needed to so she could alloy her academic knowledge with practical application, using sinews taken from the caribou, snares were fashioned and observation of the local wildlife furnished opportunities to employ them. The hide from the first caribou that Khoryntine had taken down benefitted from the academic, but complete, knowledge of the young woman who made a large drying frame from the caribou's ribs and wirecord from the emergency supplies, then carefully scraping it on the flesh side with the edge of her knife. A process that took days as it had to dry between scrapings, then she'd sleep with them wrapped around herself so the natural oils of her skin would permeate and cure the hide. Khoryntine established a territory, and patrolled it twice a day. In accordance with long-ancient practice he used stones of varying sizes, etched clearly with his talons to build markers of obvious intent, making it clear to any of the indigenous people that this area belonged to someone. Tahszlyhra rapidly fell in love with her new life, and while it had taken a bit to adjust to the quiet of a natural and unspoiled world, she now found the quiet preferred as she resurrected Selinian history and methods from a hundred-plus millenia ago. Khoryntine had used his knife to scrape out and finish a good-sized granite stone so it was flat-bottomed with a deep and wide depression in it's top with notches scraped out for the moss she'd dried. Oil had been extracted from the animal's fat, chunks of it had been put inside a cleaned ration envelope and then pounded for a long duration using the heel of her hand until it had been broken down and a thickly greasy oil was obtained. The dried moss was allowed to soak in it, then positioned carefully using talon tips like tweezers, and lit using a firelighter from the survival gear. The soft yellow flame was unsteady at first, but smoothed out, grew and cast it's light and warmth into the interior of the shelter. She stared at the soft flame, the importance of it not lost on her, and feeling a connection with the deep and distant past in this small flame that held back the darkness. She felt her instincts sharpening, honing themselves, like doors in her mind were being widened. She'd been getting bolder in exploring the local area, and had tried her own hunting skills and instincts on some small game animals that she'd happened across during her explorations. One had long ears, and from the positioning of it's eyes on the sides of it's head, it was immediately apparent such a was a natural prey animal. The white fure and black-tipped ears were very soft and warm, and she'd managed the kill quickly with a bola made of three stones and thin rawhide strips interbraided with braided strands of her own hair. The bola had snare-wrapped the animal even as it tried to run, crashing into a tumble and she'd caught up easily enough, then snapped it's neck with no effort at all as it'd made a shrilling cry before the end came. She'd noticed then that she'd been watched by one of the locals again, remaining a good distance away. She'd stood, calmly, looking back, picking out details over the distance of the fur-rimmed hood, the face dimly visible inside the hood. Unlike Selinian faces, the native sentients had flat, round faces with broad noses and narrow eyes. She understood the physiological aspects, the eyelids would have extra insulation and the slit-like appearance would be to protect from snow-glare and wind, the same held true for the skin covering the outer corners of their eyes. She scented the air, as it had shifted and might brong her the scent of the local sentient. She picked up crudely-cured animal skin, blood that was old and mostly-dried, the smell of excrement from one of the large antlered animals Khoryntine had hunted for them, and the unmistakable scent of the person. Massculine, she inferred from the same 'edginess' of it, but under that the subtler olfactory tones that identified him as an individual. Curiosity sated, she made her way back to their home, keeping watch with the almost-sight given her by the sensory spines in her ears as the wind ruffled her black hair and the local man slipped away from view. Khoryntine greeted Tahszlyhra warmly, his hands on her waist, and moving her unconsciously behind him as they moved together while kissing. She showed him the animal, spoke of the local she'd seen observing her. He took care of cleaning and dressing it, showing her the technique of working with something smaller than what he usually brought home as they discussed the local sentients and whether to approach or not. "We should go and see what there is to see. They've been keeping a close enough eye on us, so it's only intelligent we do the same. I'd like to know where they call home, that'll give me a good idea of their hunting ranges based on the distance between here and there." Khoryntine said, carefully working the skin off the carcass, and licking blood from his fingers now and then. "When would be good? I'm thinking at night, they don't seem to be nocturnal at all." Tahszlyhra said, watching the rabbit-skinning closely with her amber eyes. Khoryntine used the razor-sharp edges of his dark-grey talons here and there in tricky spots where the knife blade would be too clumsy and damage the pelt. "Good idea, and if they notice us and go hostile, it'd be far easier for us to evade and escape." He said, freeing the skin and handing it to her. Tahszlyhra started aggressively lick-scrubbing the inner surface with the rasps of her tongue, cleaning it of blood and tissue debris and giving it an initial prepping for curing, and made a sound of gratitude regarding his compliment. "We can go tonight, the sooner the better." He told her as she worked on the rabbit pelt and he began preparing to roast the rabbit for dinner over a small fire made of bones and sod pieces outside on a large flattish stone he'd knife-scraped a somewhat deep depression into. By the time dinner was cooked and had been eaten, night had fallen, and things had gotten considerably colder. They both adjusted their uniforms to compensate the little bit they needed for comfort and selected the weapons they'd take with care. Making their preparations just outside the shelter. Khoryntine reached back behind his head and drew out a length of polished dark blue metal with signs of wear on the finish that showed it's age and long use. Tahszlyhra watched as he tripped a control and the BattleLance snapped out in the blink of an eye to it's full length. Three telescoping sections made up it's structure. An eighteen inch, a seventeen, and a final sixteen inch long section made up the Lance itself, and each end sported a fifteen-inch long straight spear-point blade in a coppery titanium nitride hue. The blades were less than a millimetre wide at their thickest, double edged, and sharper than razors, made of an advanced nanocarbon-steel they'd flex to a point but would not break without unthinkable force brought on them. Powerful nanocarbon-steel springs drove it's action and it could be deployed in many ways. Purely mechanical, they were among the most reliable of weapons. A weapon that reached back Millenia and had only changed in more durable materials used in their making. Tahszlyrha watched as Khoryntine stepped back and went through a series of practice drills with it, decades o skill and experience visible in the ease and speed with which he manipulated the weapon, ending with an eyeblink fast closing back to it's basic safe form. There had been three in the emergency supplies. They were basic models, non-reflective satin-finished metal. She hefted one, and while she'd had instruction in it basic and advanced, she was nowhere near the skilled handler of one that her mate was. Khoryntine's was plainly a personal model, one that had been customized and he plainly knew it as well as he did his own arm or leg. She slid a closed one into the uniform sheath for it at one's back, along one's spine, checked and settled her sidearm in it's holster and they set out after securing their homesite. The trip didn't take them very long, barely an hour, as they tracked the local sentients off footprints that could be seen and wisps of scent and sound carried on the breeze. They scaled a large outcropping of raw rock easily with their climbing claws, high-traction bootsoles and their long, strong fingers, and at the top looked down into a small near-valley and found the place they'd been seeking. Down below them, a cluster of domed structures in cured hide with snow banked around them aside from the entryways, with a few heavily-dressed figures visible and attending to tasks. The wind brought them scents of food cooking, tanned hide, urine and other bodily waste as well as the faint scents of dozens of individuals. Their ears brought them sounds of speaking, hide covers over the domed enclosures flapping slightly in the wind, and a tapping of stone against stone. Tahszlyrha listened, moving her head slightly now and then to better zero-in on the sounds. "What's that tapping sound, it's stone-on-stone...almost familiar..." She said, trailing off as she listened. "Tool-making, stone-shaping. I've heard it before among the Preservers." Khoryntine said, scanning the area with eyes and ears. The Preservers. Those who shunned the technological world and kept the essential core of Selinian culture and civilization alive by living it every day. They lived primitively, naturally and well away from anything even remotely having to do with modern civilization. There was some interface between them and the civilization through Traders who were painstakingly careful to not contaminate their way of life, but served as a conduit for news from the Preservers and the only source of Preserver trading items, like talon-art done on slate, meticulously etched with only talon tips. Some Preserver tribes were open to visits, on their terms, from outsiders in small numbers. It had been one of the things Tahszlyrha had planned to do when they returned home. There were tribes all across the Sovereignty, and a few worlds that were their own, cultural preserves. She'd often dreamt of leaving behind the modern world and going to live with them, as some did now and then. Now, in a twist of fate, she was a Preserver herself...and of far more than mere customs and language. TO BE CONTINUED.... Category:Blog posts